Lusk, Bears set sights on making track noise

When the pistol fires twice in quick succession at a track and field meet, somebody just died.

But unlike a stealthy mob hit, sometimes the double-tap from the starter's gun can take out an entire team in front of a crowded stadium.

So it was for Baldwin High's girls last year, when star sprinter and hurdler June-Ann Lusk learned you can lose a race, and maybe even a meet, before it starts. In this case, by a fingernail.

Even if Lusk hadn't been disqualified for touching the starting line at the 110 hurdles, the meet's first running event and one that she was favored to win, it was debatable if the Bears would upend Punahou.

As even Baldwin coach Neil Takeyama concedes, "The championship goes through Punahou."

And it usually goes to Punahou. After Lusk's mishap, the Buffanblu went on to handily win their 28th state title.

Punahou may have won on its own plentiful merits. But it certainly deflated the hopes of the Maui Interscholastic League queenpins when Lusk went down.

"She was poised to go out and win the highs and the 100 and the 200," Takeyama said of Lusk, then a sophomore.

None of that happened, and even a subsequent DQ of Punahou pole vaulter Anna Hildebrand couldn't bring the Bears back into contention.

"It was really mentally hard for (Lusk) to come back, and it took away all our momentum," Takeyama said. "But like everything else, it's a learning experience."

A year later, Baldwin and Lusk are back stronger than ever. Some observers -- and not just those from the Valley Isle -- think this is the year the Bears break through for their first state track and field championship.

The Island Movers/Hawaii High School Athletic Association meet begins today with mostly preliminaries and concludes with finals tomorrow at Kamehameha.

The host Warriors, Kahuku and Punahou could come down to the final event for the boys title (on paper using best marks this year, it's Kahuku 61 points, Punahou and Kamehameha 60 each), and Red Raiders star Redmond Tutor has a legitimate chance to win six events.

Mililani's girls -- who successfully defended their Oahu Interscholastic Association title last week -- can't be counted out. But Punahou and Baldwin are expected to battle it out for first. One veteran Oahu coach has the Bears as 20-point favorites.

Athletes like Hildebrand, sprinter Kim Culver and triple-jumper Samantha Cabreros might think differently. They helped Punahou breeze to the ILH title last week. Cabreros is a state meet record holder and defending champion with 38 feet, 3 1/2 inches in the TJ last year. The junior obliterated her own P.R. last week with 38-8 1/2 in the wind and rain at Kamehameha.

Lusk won five events at the MIL championship meet two weeks ago; the highs, 100, 200 and both relays. She has support in sprinter Brittany Feiteira (third in the 100 last year at states), weight woman Nete Tolutau (best throw in the shot at 40-4 1/2 and second in the discus 132-5 this year), and pole vaulter Kaimana Rebolledo (at 10-1, 5 inches behind Hildebrand).

Lauren Ho of Hawaii Baptist, who swept the distance events last year, is out with an injury. But Careena Onosai of Word of Life (shot and discus) and Sarah Nicolaisen of Ka'u (both hurdles) return as double winners last year.

Onosai has been slowed by injury this year, but handily won both events at the ILH meet last week.

Nicolaisen practiced at the Cooke Field track yesterday -- a rare treat, since she and her teammates usually train on grass and dirt at Ka'u.

"It's four grass lanes which we use, and we wear out the grass pretty fast -- there's a lot of holes. Compared to Kamehameha, it's nothing," she said.

"But we're used to it, and we have coaches and parents who support us a lot."

Although they're too far away for Ka'u to practice, the Big Island now has two tracks worthy of the state meet, and the BIIF is expected to propose hosting next year's event.

The KIF probably won't be far behind in joining the rotation, since Vidinha Stadium got its new oval this year.

It was just in time for Waimea sprinters, who shocked the rest of the state by winning the 4x100 twice, including a meet-record 42.78 last year. Troy Yamase and Kenny Estes return from that quartet, and are rated first and third in the 100 (Yamase at 10.84 along with Kamehameha-Maui's Paea Keawekane, and Estes at 10.94) entering today.

Distance runners' guts (as well as those of all multi-event entrants) will be tested even more than usual since there is no day off between trials and finals.

This could affect the outcome of the boys meet as 3,000-meters defending champion Jeremy Kamaka'ala of Kamehameha and Punahou's Peter Deptula, who won the 800 last year, are being counted on heavily for big points.

For Kahuku, as goes Tutor go the Red Raiders. He is entered in both hurdles, the long jump and the triple jump and both relays. Coach Sean Makaiau said he's not sure if Tutor will run in the 4x100 or not, but this is one athlete whose limits have not been established yet. Tutor dominated last week's OIA meet like no other boy since Bryan Clay, and he seemed to have plenty of gas left when it was done.

And he's a team guy, as Kahuku's boys, like Baldwin's girls, can taste their school's first state championship.

"Redmond's locked and loaded," Makaiao said. "He's not tense, he's a happy-go-lucky guy and I don't feel he's feeling pressure. But he's focused, and he's not looking for records. He's just looking to win."